I'm in an argument with somebody on facebook (not my friend, this is on somebody else's page, thank god) who is seriously claiming that the Confederacy was justified because, while slavery was unfortunate, their economy would have collapsed without it, so slavery had to stick around as a practical necessity.

I'm not going to copy the whole thing here, but holy crap- I thought we had at least gotten past that particular bit. Seriously, is America still not at the point where we can at least agree that slavery was indefensible?

I don't see anything wrong with that statement. Seems like you're replying with moral arguments against slavery while he's just restating the historical arguments of the Confederacy found in every high school textbook.

I don't think there is actually a living person who seriously believes the Earth is flat. Maybe some aboriginal tribe in the South Pacific that has never had contact with civilization but not anybody in the real world.

I don't think there is actually a living person who seriously believes the Earth is flat. Maybe some aboriginal tribe in the South Pacific that has never had contact with civilization but not anybody in the real world.

I read some of the "Q&A" and there are definitely serious flat earthers there. Holy

You mean because they post questions and comments on an internet forum that on their face purport to be serious?
L'Incandescent often posts things here that seem very serious, such as when he said that he was in the academic field of Grace Studies. But then he later has to explain that those comments were not actually serious (contained statements that were not literally true) to avoid leaving us with states of confusion. (Just giving an example.)

I'm in an argument with somebody on facebook (not my friend, this is on somebody else's page, thank god) who is seriously claiming that the Confederacy was justified because, while slavery was unfortunate, their economy would have collapsed without it, so slavery had to stick around as a practical necessity.

I'm not going to copy the whole thing here, but holy crap- I thought we had at least gotten past that particular bit. Seriously, is America still not at the point where we can at least agree that slavery was indefensible?

When asked in an interview if the people of New Orleans had forgotten their treatment by the Bush admin in the wake of Katrina James Carville replied that" the people of New Orleans still refer to the Civil War as the recent unpleasantness."

I don't see anything wrong with that statement. Seems like you're replying with moral arguments against slavery while he's just restating the historical arguments of the Confederacy found in every high school textbook.

When discussing slavery, the last thing you want to do is bring morality into it just muddles the issues no two ways about it. Especially in discussions about whether the Confederacy was justified.